Archetypes have a very important requirement: to be targetted to an informatoin model which acts as a "base ontology". In openEHR we use the openEHR reference model fr this purpose. This is what allows you to write an archetype for somehting like "Apgar result", which needs to use concepts like OBSERVATION (with properties data, state and protocol), HISTORY (with properties events, origin), EVENT (property data), and varous data structure types, like TREE, LIST, TABLE and SINGLE.

EN 13606 is not designed directly to support archetyping; it is designed as a lowest-common denominator EHR data interoperability model, with support for transmitting archetyped information.

This is not the same as providing sufficient ontological definitoins to support the building or use of archetypes. If you were to use EN13606 literally for archetypes, you could only use ENTRY, CLUSTER and ELEMENT; you will see that trying to define most clinical concepts with such a weak ontology will be annoying difficult, error-prone, and ultimately will not engage clinical professionals.

So openEHR currently offers at least part of a base ontology for building archetypes, with concepts of sufficient strength to make higher-level clinical concepts easily expressible. In the near future, we intend to propose the creation of an agreed "base level ontology" reference model, expressed in UML, for use by everybody for buiulding archetypes. We will include the core of the openEHR reference model for this (from COMPOSITION down); but we want other organisations to think about what they need to see in this. There are other reference models such as the Danish G-EPJ which have clean concepts which may need to be in this base ontology; also ENV 13940 (continuity of care) models need to be analysed for possible contributions. We will propose this base ontology at the next CEN working group meeting. I believe people will agree in principle.

A data mapping is also being defined between openEHR (and later, the common base ontology) and EN13606. This wll enable 13606 to fulfull its purpose, which is to move data faithfully between EHR sites, including data which has been archetyped in those sites.

But please don’t try to directly archteype 13606 information structures – you will be going down he wrong route!